Summer rain means bumper crop, mosquitoes for Sask. growers

There was a bumper crop for sale at the Regina Farmer’s Market Wednesday, but Mother Nature hasn’t done anything to help the produce along.

In fact the recent wet and stormy weather has provided challenges for growers.

At Spring Creek Garden, north of Outlook, plants have been underwater with rain almost daily since mid-June.

“We’ve had over a foot of rain in our area since the beginning July alone and that is more than we get in a season,” explained owner Chelsea Erlandson.

Customers were buying everything from corn to beets, beans and celery, but Erlandson admitted it wasn’t easy to obtain.

“Everyone is fairly miserable on the farm because its rain gear and muddy boots and the mosquitoes have come out recently.”

Erlandson is hoping for some drier conditions heading into fall and that is what forecasters are promising.

Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips insists that summer has not been cancelled.

“A change is coming bringing you nothing but that great Saskatchewan sunshine, some warmth but not excessively warm but also some very dry conditions,” he explained.

Phillips believes that will last into the fall just in time for harvest.

“You wouldn’t want to put your mechanized equipment on to the grain fields right now so if we could dry things out, get back to that optimistic look at what the grain quality and quantity will be, I think people will be happy about it.”